Improvement in wagon-brakes



L WOLF.

WagOn Brake.

Patented Jany 5, 1869.

f-Wmessas 5mm f @tutti @iiwww@ .Mew

www

- LEWIsWoLnoE Lo-UrsviiLLr, KENTUCKY, AssicNon 'ro'HIMsELr AND T. E. cnam-Luv, or SAME rimer.y

Lette/rs Patent No. 85,715, dated .Tamm/ry 5, 1869.

INIPRO'VEMCENT IN WAGON-BRAKES.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the s'a'me.

To all whom it ma/y conce/rn:

Be it known thatI, LEWIS WOLF, of Louisville, county of J eii'erson, and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and useful Brake for Wagons; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification.

Figure 1 is a top view of a wagon to which my improved brake is applied, the bed having been removed. Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same through-line x x, gs. 2 and 3.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the wagon-bed. -Figure 4 is a ont view of swinging bolster, standards, rollers, and king-bolt. .Similar letters. of -reference indicate corresponding parts.

My invention relates to brakes for wagons; and It consists in providing an improved self-acting brake, y which exerts a pressure on the wheels in proportion to. the inclination of the plane to be descended, and to the weight of the load carried; (that is, the steeper the descent, and theheavier the load, the more powerful the .action of the brake on the wheels and in the device for rendering the brake inoperative, as will be hereinafter more fully described.

As my improvement can be attached to any wagon of ordinary construction, it is not deemed necessary to describe minutely more of the parts of a wagon than such as are connected directly with the operation of the brake.4

In the drawings- A are the wheels.

B are the axles.

G is the axlecap.

D is a swinging bolster, having a roller, D, on its upper surface, which has its bearings in the standards. The function of said rollerwill be hereafter vfully described. l

D2 is the king-bolt.

E is a iixed bolster.

F is the bed.

It will be observed that uprightpieces, F', are secured tc the sides of the bed, near its rear end, so as to form grooves, in to which the standards of the fixed bolster fit.

These standards prevent the bed from sliding on the ixed'bolster.

' G are the standards. H are the forward hounds.

I are the rear hounds..

K is the forward reach;

K is a turn-plate, which has a small upright con structed upon its front edge. It contains two perforations, which are continued into sockets in the reach K. Twoloosely-fitting pins are carried in these perforations.

Another socket is made in the reach, at such a distance from the rear pin that, when the plate is turned back, so as to lie on the face of the reach again, the foremost pin will now t into said socket.

The upright portion of the plate comes in close contact with the front end ofthe rear reach, and prevents it from sliding forward.

L is'tlle rear reach.

M are levers, pivoted to eye-bolts, which eye-bolts are secured in the xed bolster about equidistant from its centre and its extremities.

The eye-bolts are of sucient length to allow the levers to have full play.

N are connecting-rods, attached to the longer arms of the levers, which put the levers in communication with the top of the clevis 0, in which top the curved portions of the connecting-rods culminate.

. O is a clevis, which carries within it both the reaches, reach L lying on the top of reach K.

Transverse bolts pass through the clevis and the reaches, and pivot the latter to the former, thus permitting the reaches'to slide backward and forward ou each other. A

rlhe connecting-rods culminate in an eye at the top of this clevis, as above stated.

Of is a duplicate of O, with the exception of the eye on its top, for the purpose above described.

P are eye-bolts, which connect the short arms of the levers and the brake-beam.

Q is a brake-beam, of the usual construction.

R are brake-blocks.

S is the tongue.

The operation of my invention is as follows:

The tuin-plate being in the position shown in iig. 2, so as to allow the rear reach to slide forward, the brakes are ready for action.

As the wagon starts down an inclined plane, the weight of the reach is itself sulicient to impel it forward, but it has the additional weight of the hounds, bolster, axle, wheels, and bed to drive it in that direction.

It will be observed that the bed, being secured'A to the ixcdbolster, and allowed to slide over the swing; ing one by means of the roller D1, throws the principal part of its weight on the fixed bolster, which communicates it to the reach.

The bed is really a long arm attached to a vertical lever, which would be represented by a line drawn through the intermediate parts of the wagon between the bed and the centre of the axle, which lever drives the reach to the front, and its action is in proportion to the load the bed carries,-and the weight of the rear runninggear of the wagon.

The rear reach, as it slides on the other one, carries the upper portion of the clevis forward with it.

The connecting-rods now pull on the long arm of the to the front. This throws the lever, and bring them short arms back, carrying with them the brakes, exciting a pressure on the wheels proportionate to the load czmied, and the sharpness of the descent.

When it is desired to back the wagon, turn back the .plate K until its upright portion is in close eolitztct with the end of the reach, :md secure it by the pin. This renders the broke inoperative.

This improvement is not only of great value in locking the wagon as it proceeds down :t hill, but, es precisely the same e'ect is produced on the brakes by backing the Wagon, they :tre an effectual check to abelky animal.

Having thus described the nature and operation of my invention, 

